Tyondai Braxton

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Artist Biography

Tyondai Braxton is an American composer and electronic musician. He has been writing and performing music under his own name and collaboratively, under various group titles, since the mid 1990’s. His music incorporates electronic and modern orchestral elements, ranging from solo pieces to large-scale symphonic works.

The former front man of experimental rock band Battles, Braxton has since focused on his own work, including his critically acclaimed album Central Market – which has been performed by world-renowned orchestras such as London Sinfonietta, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

He has been commissioned to write pieces for ensembles such as The Bang on a Can All Stars, Kronos Quartet, Alarm Will Sound, and Brooklyn Rider. In 2012, Braxton collaborated with legendary composer Philip Glass – performing as a duo for the festival series All Tomorrow’s Parties, as well as remixing Glass’ work for the REWORK remix album.

In 2013, Braxton premiered HIVE - a multimedia piece that is part sound installation/part live performance - at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. He has given subsequent HIVE performances at Sacrum Profanum Festival in Krakow, as part of the Nonesuch Records 50th Anniversary celebration at The Barbican in London, and at Sydney Opera House.

HIVE1 - Braxton’s first new album in six years - was released on May 12, 2015 on Nonesuch Records. And Orange Out EP, with proceeds benefiting the Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, a nonprofit organization which advocates for gun control and against gun violence, was released June 2016.

Selected Press

One of the most acclaimed experimental musicians of the last decade.

Washington Post

Braxton continues to be one of the most exciting voices in contemporary music

While it was impossible to guess how much, if any, of the electronic side of “Hive” was improvised over the fastidious percussion, Mr. Braxton clearly had a grand strategy in place. The music had moved from wary collaboration to moody, alienated second thoughts to wholehearted, walloping, overwhelming unity.